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Sonne or die Sonne is a German Sun Goddess. Sonne is both a divine entity and the Sun herself. At dawn the goddess rises in golden splendor to ride across the sky. She brings hope in the darkness, and awakens seeds of spring with her nurturing light. Sun worship is the earliest widespread nature religion, with an organized cult and mythology in Egypt c. 2600 BCE. Worship of the Sun goes back to the dawn of humankind.
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Although accounts of the south German goddess Sonne are sparse, from historical precedent we can estimate Germania developed a culture of the Sun before the Germanic Norse arrived in Scandinavia in the 5 - 8th century to build their own set of beliefs. Die Sonne means simply "the sun" in German and Sonne or "Sun" is the goddess. Her pronoun die (pr. dee) is feminine.
The German word Sonne (e is pronounced softly) also appears in Old English from Anglo-Saxon Siȝel, a Sun Goddess. In German solar spirits are Sonnengeister. A solar flare is a Sonneneruption. Sol as in solar came into the German language in more modern times with terms like Solarenergie (solar energy).
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In the early centuries CE the Imperial Romans occupied almost every part of Europe except Germania, though they did try. They also traded with the less hostile German tribes, and captives on either side brought influences of their culture and beliefs; but there's no evidence of Roman sun worship incorporated into Germanic lore.
Greek Helios comes from the same root as the Proto-Indo-European Haéusōs (meaning to glow; shine). Helios and Apollo both appear in Greco Roman myth until the 5th century CE, when Apollo kicks Helios into the Sun. Helios becomes part of the physical Sun, while Apollo represents light of the Sun.
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The Roman Sol is male, corresponding to Greek Helios. His sisters are Luna and Aurora. Likewise, in many cultures the Sun is male. He's a Yang energy, brilliant and glorious, the bringer of light and life; at the same time, a destroyer. The French word for the male sun, soleil, comes from the Latin solis or sun, as does Spanish and Portuguese sol and Italian sole.
In Rome of the 1st to 4th centuries, sun Sol also had his own belief systems, initially borrowed from the Persian, but distinctly Roman. In the times of antiquity the cult of Mithras the Sun god flourished throughout the Empire.
Sol is the Sun itself and functions separately from Mithras, who challenges him or does his bidding. It's Sol who tells Mithras to kill the sacrificial Bull, which became central to the Roman religious ideology for a while.
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In Norse lore the female deity Sol appears in the Bible of Norse culture and mythology, the Eddas by Icelandic poet historian Snorri Sturluson (1179 - 1241 CE). Originally the Norse were Germanic people from the Baltic and North Sea shores, who settled the southern part of the land of the Sámi people.
In Viking history, the Norse were known to pillage German towns along the Lower Rhine such as Cologne and Bonn. Despite a few forays, habitation attempts seem to be confined to northern reaches of the Germanic lands, such as Denmark.
An 8th century Viking settlement was discovered in Germany right next to the Danish border. For the most part, the Norse stayed in the North and had little influence on the central and southern legends of Germania. Distinctly Norse, the Eddas can't be slapped onto the whole of German mythology.
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Fundamentally the Germans like many early people were animists, believing everything contains a spirit, or is itself a spirit, good or bad and usually some of each. This, and the oral tradition of German mythology, created a cult of nature worship in which all living things, including the Moon and Sun, could interact and communicate with humans.
It's not always necessary to build a complex external mythology. Many cultures perceived the Sun Goddess as the Sun herself. The Sun has goddess attributes as an essential entity of light and warmth.
All life is spiritual. Ancient Germans had a sense of being in the moment, and related to what was around them in the present. If not they might walk into the arms of an angry momma bear while daydreaming of the afterlife (in Germany bears weren't extinct until 1835).
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The ancient German people didn't believe in an afterlife as various people do now. They did have a strong awareness of the Undead, who could rise up to torment or murder a person in hideous ways. The Sun sends these creatures running back to their demonic demesnes. If an unfortunate Aufhocker victim survives until she rises, the power of Sonne or sunshine (Sonnenschein) is the light of liberty.
In Celtic lore more than one Sun goddess appears. Female Sun deities exist throughout the world including in Japan, Vietnam, China and other Eastern countries; Australian aboriginal lore; Inuit myth (northern Canada); among the Berbers, the Finnish and culture of the Sámi people, the reindeer herders who lived in northern Scandinavia.
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Most societies cultivate rich Sun cultures, whether the Inuit of the dayless nights or the desert nomads of the East. Early German people may have seen the Sun not so much as a separate entity, but the Goddess as the Sun herself.
She embodies the nurturing qualities attributed to the female and the fierce light of the warrior. The Sun is the Goddess; she is Sonne, whose name means Sun, a creator spirit, the benevolent patron of growth, healing and life. Her day is Sonntag, or Sunday.
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